Stramski Children's Developmental Center

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Stramski Children's Developmental Center

Cool waves of water lap at his body as he and his therapist wade in the pool. Slowly the dolphin creeps up to him, as if to read Diego’s body and symptoms. Like a doctor gives a diagnosis, the dolphin knows just what remedy to prescribe. The therapist holds Diego tight as the dolphin’s bottled nose slowly leans in to kiss Diego’s face. Then, Diego wakes up.

He blinks the dream away as he waits for his nurse to come into his bedroom. Diego’s nurse walks in and gets Diego’s morning started. His nurse removes his continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) machine, dresses him, gets him ready for school and helps him into his wheelchair. He uses the tool connected to his chair to wheel into the kitchen where his mother has breakfast ready. After being fed breakfast, he wheels out the door and waits for his school bus to pick him up for school.

Diego is 17-years-old, a student at Lakewood High School, loves art and is quadriplegic. The latter is not inclusive of his character, but just a condition he lives with. In fact Diego is like any high school senior, ready and excited for graduation.

Diego also is prepared to take on the next milestone in his life, college. He eagerly waits for responses from his college applications to arrive so he can decide which new adventure to embark on. Diego is no stranger to challenge. One of Diego’s biggest challenges starts here at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach.

When Diego was 7, he and his brother were hit by a car when crossing the street. Diego was rushed to Miller Children’s, where he was in a medically induced comma for 3 months.

Diego finally opened his eyes and was told of his diagnoses. The accident had severely damaged his spine leaving him quadriplegic; giving doctors low expectations for normal functioning and unable to walk for the rest of his life. But even at 7-years-old Diego would not quit, he knew he had something more to offer the world.

With the help of his mother, family and friends he would endure invasive therapies and a tracheostomy (trach), a surgical procedure creating an opening in the tracheotomy that acts as an air passage. It was during this time that someone suggested to Diego’s mother that swimming with dolphins was a therapeutic and effective treatment for those affected by quadriplegia. And from that moment on swimming with dolphins became a dream for Diego.

Eventually all of Diego’s efforts would prove he was ready to be released from Miller Children’s and sent home. Even though he was on his way home, Diego would soon be faced with a new set of challenges.

Diego left the hospital with a head halo, a head piece that helps keep your head and neck still and a trach to help him breathe that involved stringent sanitization and care. Diego was soon diagnosed with sleep apnea was on a strict medicine regimen. He had to get used to many changes in his routine in order to effectively manage his condition.

But Diego kept at it and the hard work paid off. Diego’s halo was removed and he was strong enough to go back to school. He was able to learn, and express himself through art and painting by holding a brush in his mouth.

Yet, even though Diego was tough and smart enough to handle homework, getting around in his wheelchair and his schedule, the hard part was socializing with his peers. His trach made it difficult to interact and communicate with the other students which made high school that much harder. Not to mention, his trach made it impossible for Diego to ever have the chance to swim with dolphins.

So that was it and 14-year-old Diego decided he was going to overcome this new challenge, he was going to change his fate. He requested to his care team at Miller Children’s to remove his trach by his 15th birthday.

After hearing his request, The Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center decided that if Diego was willing to fight for his dream, they would fully support him. The Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center brought Diego in for sleep studies to understand his unique case. They found that his Carbon Dioxide levels had increased, meaning he was not breathing properly during his sleep study; particularly if his trach was plugged.

After months of studies, Diego’s trach was finally closed and he was finally able to breathe freely without assistance on his 16th birthday in 2010. The only requirement that Diego faces is sleeping with his CPAP, to help him get restful sleep at night.

Now, as Diego relaxes in his room, trach free and excited for the future, he thinks about the next challenges his life is about to bring. He prepares for graduation, looks forward to college and can’t help but close his eyes and dream about what it might be like to swim with dolphins.

The Stramski Children’s Development Center at Miller Children’s is a comprehensive center that cares for children—from birth to age 21—with behavioral and developmental conditions, such as autism, Fragile X, ADHD/ADD, Down Syndrome, learning disabilities, behavioral sleep conditions, craniofacial abnormalities and cleft lip and palate. The Stramski Center often serves as the transitional care center for infants and toddlers, who have developmental delay following hospitalization in either the NICU or PICU—many times following the child’s care for years.

Comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care at the Stramski Center includes Behavioral and Neurodevelopment, Craniofacial, Sleep Disorders, High Risk Infant Follow-Up, Genetics, and Fragile X programs that are designed to help manage a child’s illness and improve their developmental outcomes. The Stramski Center has a unique Craniofacial core team that works closely with plastic surgery to repair cleft lip and palate. The Stramski Center also houses an International Adoption Program that provides consultation, evaluation and counseling to families that are in the process of adopting a child from another country. The Stramski Children’s Developmental Center receieves tremendous community support, especially from the Steel Magnolias and the Memorial Medical Center Foundation.

Miller Children’s Stands Apart

The Stramski Children’s Developmental Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach is home to Southern California’s only Fragile X Program with families coming from all over the Southwest.
The Stramski Children’s Developmental Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach has one of only a few International Adoption Programs, in the U.S., which helps families go through the preliminary and post-adoption process.
The Stramski Children’s Developmental Center at Miller Children's has one of only a few American Academy of Sleep Medicine accredited pediatric sleep disorders programs in Southern California.
The Stramski Children’s Development Center multi-disciplinary care team has access to work with other pediatric specialists and sub-specialists to create a comprehensive care plan and treatment process for children with conditions that are multi-system.